The Bridesmaid (2004)

A young man (Benoît Magimel) attracts a fatal attraction (Laura Smet) at his sister's wedding. Smet plays a psychotic girl who Magimel thinks is only living in a semi fantasy world. But unfortunately it is more than that.I don't care for horror/psychopathic killer genres but if you do Claude Chabrol delivers again.Smet does a perfect job of portraying a mentally ill female--and the story leaves you in doubt so you have to watch it all the way through to see what happens. Also Benoît is handsome, after recent doses of Depardieu and Yves Montand--this is a relief.Good adult entertainment. Both the main characters are strong actors. Also as another reviewer stated Smet is uniquely beautiful as well as a good actress....as stated previously ditto Magimel. Short dark horror story.Recommend if you like the genre.

The films of French Cinema master Claude Chabrol have been some of the quirkier, intelligent, strange, and creative works to come out of France (La Fleur du mal, Merci pour le chocolat, Au coeur du mensonge, Rien ne va plus, La Cérémonie, L'Enfer, Madame Bovary, Dr. M, etc). His works are marked with sinister underpinnings and his technique has been to place his characters in situations that challenge them to behaviors they consider bizarre until they understand the core of their somewhat deranged personalities. LA DEMOISELLE D'HONNEUR (THE BRIDESMAID) succeeds as a art work on so many levels that the viewer is inclined to forgive some of the dangling missing pieces in character and plot development that prevent this film from being Chabrol's finest. The setting, pacing, cast and concept are intriguingly seductive: that is enough to make the film work well.The Tardieu family is in the midst of preparing for the wedding of one daughter Sophie (Solène Bouton), learning to accept the new love affair of the mother Christine (Aurore Clément) to a wealthy newly divorced man Gérard (Bernard Le Coq), becoming used to the edgy antisocial behavior of daughter Patricia (Anna Mihalcea), and all the while being cared for by the successful contractor son Philippe (Benoît Magimel). On the television is the report of a murdered young woman and the disruption of a television show frustrates the obsessive Philippe in his work to keep the family focused. We jump to Sophie's wedding to nerdy Jacky (Eric Seigne) whose cousin Stéphanie "Senta" Bellange (Laura Smet) is the bridesmaid of the title. The strange but sensuous Senta captures Philippe's eye and a rather torrid love affair begins. Senta is passionate and makes Philippe agree to four demands to prove he loves her: the last two (killing someone/anyone) and having sex with a same sex partner) jolt Philippe but he throws his usual caution to the wind and proceeds with the pairing. A homeless man who lives at Senta's grimy cellar lodging door repulses her, and when a police report that the man has been found dead, Philippe falsely 'confides' to Senta that he is responsible. Senta then promises to kill Gérard as her half of the bargain: Gérard has avoided Philippe's mother and Philippe feels animosity toward anyone who would disturb his beloved mother. The plot thickens, then boils: the 'murders' change from reality to mistaken identity to heinous ends. Philippe has become immersed in Senta's madness, leaving an ending that remains 'in media res'.Chabrol leaves strange clues scattered about for the astute eye to discover, at times in retrospect, and it is this trait that makes the story so fascinating. The cast is superb, with Benoît Magimel proving that his success in 'The Pianist' was not a fluke. He is a gifted actor and maintains an electrifying screen presence. This may not be Chabrol's best film, but it is twisted enough to keep the viewer tensely focused on the very strange story and on the complexly interesting set of characters in this very French film noir! Grady Harp

This is yet another take on Chabrol's ongoing exploration of French suburbia and on balance it's no better or worse than most of his others. From the outset - Philippe Tardieu returns home to find his mother and sisters watching a news report involving the mysterious and possibly tragic disappearance of a young girl and turns the TV off - it's obvious that Philippe (Benoit Magimal) is destined to wind up on the TV himself having descended from an initially healthy to an ultimately unhealthy state of mind so that all we need now is a catalyst. Chabrol makes us wait and doesn't introduce Senta (Laura Smet) until about 30 minutes into the movie. From that point it's a case of watching as Senta eats into Philippe's brain the way maggots eat into a cadaver for, to all intents and purposes Philippe is a dead man from his first encounter with Senta. Chabrol likes to take his time and dallies over a situation involving Philippe's widowed mother Christine (Aurore Clement) and a possible replacement Gerard Courtois (Bernard Le Coq). Chabrol clearly sees Le Coq as 'heavy' material; in his last film Fleur du Mal Le Coq had a much bigger part as a much bigger villain and Suzanne Flon suffers a similar fate segueing from a main supporting role in Fleur to little more than a cameo here. Benoit Magimal is the kind of French actor I've never been able to warm to, a kind of Vincent Cassell-lite, seething with contained violence, trying for 'cool' and emerging as 'sullen' though in fairness Magimal here gets nearer to playing an essentially 'nice' guy than Cassell managed in L'Appartement. Laura Smet is excellent as the not-quite beautiful but very sensuous with it Senta as well she may be given her pedigree - the daughter of the great Nathalie Baye and, somewhat improbably, Johnny Hallyday. Overall it's a pleasant if not gripping enough entry, one which I've now seen twice and will possibly see again.

Director Claude Chabrol has been around a long time, and actor Benoit Magimel is a comparative newcomer, but their chemistry results in a sublime entertainment. Magimel had a supporting role in Chabrol's last film ("La Fleur du Mal"), but here he's top-billed and he's superb. As a hard-working sales rep for a French home-improvement firm, Magimel projects his diverse skills with great subtlety. He portrays the dutiful, loving son to a hard-working single mom and older brother to two sisters (one, a preoccupied bride-to-be, and the other a snotty layabout), and he's a real straight-arrow, jacket-and-necktie clad guy. But he meets one wild and messy love-target at his sister's wedding. This thoroughly disorganized and slovenly young woman may (or may not) be a certifiable fruitcake and chronic liar, but -- through her -- our very proper sales rep is introduced to carnage and murder on a major scale. Watch Magimel's handsome but expressive face as he struggles with new-found passion, love, doubt, dismay, fear, loathing and about a hundred other mixed emotions. If you don't know his prior work, you'll be discovering an actor of consummate skill. And with this twisty, funny and consistently suspenseful film, you'll be enjoying one of the best films in Chabrol's long and distinguished career.